


Break a Leg

by chrisevansisanassman



Category: Big Brother RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, golf and theater boyfriends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-02-24 04:25:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2568146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrisevansisanassman/pseuds/chrisevansisanassman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the exciting Frankie Grande enrolls at Zach's high school, they strike up a bargain: If Zach and his friends audition for the winter drama show, then Frankie will save the golf team. A lot can happen between auditions and opening night. Break a leg (just not your swinging arm).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey, thanks for reading. I'm a beginner, but I'm trying really hard for you. my sister (wordsinmylungs) made me do this.

Zach Rance was one of the most popular kids at his school. With an eccentric, loud personality he quickly made himself well-known. The students knew him by his signature offensive jokes and gigantic ego. The teachers knew him by the students who constantly complained about his aforementioned offensive jokes and gigantic ego. He took great pride in this; feeling like royalty, absolutely adoring the way everyone knew his name and mentioned him in conversations.  
You either loved Zach or you hated him. Most chose the latter.

Nevertheless, he maintained a certain level of power over his school, which he flaunted with joy. It was relatively small, stuffed between the big resorts of Florida where there wasn’t much room for suburban areas. Everyone knew everyone, and it was a big deal when new people came to the school.

So you can only imagine Zach’s interest in the new boy. 

“Yeah, someone told me him and sister are from New York or something. He said they’re like really rich,” Cody said, leaning against the lockers while tapping away on his phone. 

“Ugh,” Zach scoffed, “I can’t stand rich kids.” 

“What, you think they’ll be annoying?”

Zach laughed, putting on a big grin. “Oh, I’m positive they’ll be annoying, like everyone else.”

“It’d be hard to imagine anyone more annoying than you,” Cody responded, ignoring the arrogant comment as usual. “I just hope the sister is hot.” 

They all seemed to be excited to meet the mysterious New Yorkers, but Zach didn’t get a glimpse until second period in biology. It was set up so that the desks were in sets of two, and the person you sat next to was your partner for the semester. However, there was an uneven number of kids in that particular class, and no one liked the idea of trying to work with Zach, so he was alone. And he gloated about this ‘prized’ seat often. But, the first thing he saw when he entered the familiar classroom was someone very unfamiliar sitting in his seat. 

“Uhh, excuse me?” Zach began, not trying to hide his annoyance. 

The boy looked up, and whoa. I mean, Zach’s not gay, but with eyes like those he was considering the idea. “I’m sorry,” he said, sounding sincere about it. “I didn’t know any partners sat here.”

“Oh, well, uh, I mean, I’m not taken.” His eyes widened suddenly, realizing he just sounded like an idiot. “As a partner, you know… no one is my biology partner.”

He laughed with a friendly smiling, calming Zach’s nerves and diffusing the embarrassment. “Well, then I guess I’m in the right place. Here, I’ll move over so you can have your usual spot.” He pushed his books to the side and jumped into the other chair. “I’m Frankie, by the way. Frankie Grande.”

Zach felt himself grinning back at the boy for reasons he couldn’t really understand. By now, if it was anyone else, he already would’ve made fun of the pink hair (which, to be fair, on anyone else would’ve looked bad) or the obvious rich boy outfit. “I’m Zach. Thanks for moving. I like this spot; it gives me full view of the teachers desk, so I know when I can text and stuff. Oh, and I like to play this game where I watch his face when he’s on his laptop and imagine he’s watching porn. It’s only really funny when he has problems with Microsoft because he gets all mad and starts yelling.”

He could feel himself rambling on like an idiot, but he just couldn’t help it. 

Luckily for him, Frankie found it cute (or at least Zach hoped he did) and just laughed along with him. The rest of the period, after Mr. Stevens spent fifty minutes droning on about the differences of plant cells and animal cells until he gave them a worksheet and started going through e-mails on his laptop, they played the game together. It was admittedly boring at first, but then he began to read what must’ve been an aggravating e-mail, as he started rolling his eyes and balling his fists. 

The two of them giggled in the back of the class like sixth grade boys, getting some strange looks from their classmates. The bell rang, and Zach took his chance to chat up thenew boy.

“So, what were you thinking of doing for lunch? There’s this really nice table out in the courtyard under some shade, so it’s not too hot and there’s not bird poop on the tables.”

Frankie laughed, “Sounds extravagant. I take it you’ll be sitting there?”

“Everyday, with some of my friends. There’s totally room for one more, though.”

He bit his lip and nodded shyly. “What about two more? My sister and I already agreed that we’d sit together on the first day, until we found people of our own, you know.”

“Oh, totally, man. Bring her by. It’s right outside the lunch doors. You won’t miss it.”

***

“Zach,” Caleb yelled in his usual booming voice. “I heard you had to sit with the new guy in bio. Give us the scoop.”

“The scoop? Jesus, what are you, some 1930’s journalist?” Zach joked, using every chance he could get to mock his friends weird terms. 

Caleb made an unimpressed face, but urged him to tell them all about the gossip.

He definitely wanted to talk about Frankie (his newfound infatuation) but before he could speak, all of his friends’ attention was shifted behind Zach. He turned around to find

Frankie and the girl who must have been his sister. They wore what looked like matching designer sunglasses.

“Hey,” he said excitedly, making room on the bench for the two to sit down. “Everyone this is Frankie and…”

He looked to the unnamed girl, realizing he didn’t know how to address her. “Ariana,” she said.

“I’m Zach, that’s Cody, that’s Caleb, and that’s Hayden. The crew.”

Frankie smiled widely, excited to meet everyone. Ariana seemed to want to keep to herself, on the other hand. “Hey, everyone, thanks for letting us sit here. We just moved from

New York, so we don’t really know anyone. Zach’s been really welcoming, though.”

Hayden scoffed loudly, interrupting him. “I can honestly say I’ve never heard someone describe Zach as ‘welcoming’. Did he pay you to say that? Is this all an elaborate scheme?”

“Hey, shut up,” Zach replied, not wanting his new friend to get the wrong idea. “I’m welcoming as fuck.” He decided to divert the attention back to Frankie. “So, why did you end up moving?”

Frankie shrugged, beginning to eat the salad he bought from the school cafeteria. “It wasn’t exactly my choice. I love New York, but my parents wanted to get out of the busy city and just relax somewhere nice and chilled out like Florida.”

“Wait, did you prefer New York more?” Cody asked. 

Ariana began to mess around on her phone, so Frankie answered all of the questions. He seemed to be more talkative and outgoing, very excited to talk about himself.

“Well, there was just a lot going on there, you know. I was training to perform on Broadway, so it seems like a huge setback to move all the way down here.”

“Broadway?” Zach spluttered. “Like, acting and musicals and stuff?”

Frankie nodded joyfully. “Have you seen any?”

“Uh… I think one time my mom made me watch Mamma Mia with her.”

“I adore Mamma Mia!” he shrieked, grabbing Zach’s arm. He felt his heartbeat speed up as the boy clutched onto him.

He didn’t really know how to respond, so he just sort of stared at Frankie until Caleb broke the silence.

“I’ve seen the first season of Glee.”

“What the fuck, dude,” Cody responded. “Don’t admit those things in public.”

Ignoring his friends’ banter, Zach asked, “So you’re an actor… and a singer… and a dancer?” He was so intrigued by this boy, and he had no idea why.

Frankie nodded proudly, smiling widely. “They’re all my passions in life. I’ve been taking classes ever since I was old enough to walk and talk. I’m going to be famous someday, me and my little sis. We’re gonna take the world by storm. Look out.”

Zach, who had been grinning and looking right into Frankie’s eyes the entire time, nodded along. His mind was so busy with new thoughts; he had no idea how to form a proper response. “That sounds really cool.” 

“Don’t we have a drama department here?” Hayden asked to no one in specific. 

Frankie nodded, “The principal told me at orientation that there is one, but it’s severely suffering. Apparently no one is auditioning for the plays anymore. Just my luck.”

“Oh yeah,” Cody added, “I think I heard something about that on the announcements. Maybe you can save the show.”

“Doubt it. They’d need more than me at this point. I’ll have to try and look around, see if I can recruit anyone.”

“Recruit people?” Zach asked.

He smirked, “Trust me, I can be very persuasive. I’ll get my way.” 

A part of Zach wanted to instantly offer to help, to audition for whatever lame show the drama department was trying to put on. However, the other more rational side of him knew that that was a terrible idea; he had absolutely no experience in singing or dancing. He did think of himself as something of an actor, though, at least when he needed to be.

“What about you, Zach? Do you have any aspirations in life?” Frankie asked, shifting the attention to him.

He shrugged, looking down to his lunch like a bashful grade school girl. “Well, I really love golfing. My parents have always been into it, so I just sort of caught on.”

“Yeah, there are so many damn golf courses around here. I’ve never seen so much wasted grass space. That would not fly in New York City; people clamor at the sight of unused land.”

“I take it you’re not really into golfing?”

Frankie shrugged. “I guess I’ve never really tried it.”

“Well, I bet you totally have the arms for it, from the dancing and stuff.”Zach said, again feeling like an idiot. He had a bad habit of saying whatever stupid-sounding thing came to his head. 

He just sort of grinned, fully knowing how impressive his arms were. “So are you on a golfing team here?”

“I’m sort of in the same position as you, actually. I mean, there’s a little team, but there’s not enough people in it to take us to the final tournament. We need at least one more player, and there’s absolutely no one here who wants to join.” Zach explained.

Ariana, putting her phone down, joined the conversation. “Zach, you should invite Frankie to go golfing with you.”

It was the first thing she’d even said to him, besides for her name, and it sort of made Zach laugh a little. Why was she interested in making social plans for her brother?

“Uh, yeah, that sounds like a great plan, actually. Do you have anything going on this Saturday?”

Frankie, taking everything in still, looked up as he thought of his currently busy schedule. “Well, I was actually going to spend this weekend organizing my messy closet and finish unpacking everything, but I bet swinging it with you would be more fun.”  
  


 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys!! Thank you for commenting and giving kudos for the last chapter. Sorry for not updating sooner. I hope you enjoy. That's all.

“He has _pink hair_?”

It was Saturday, and Zach would be lying if he said he hadn’t been waiting impatiently all week for this. Today was finally the day that Frankie was going to join him to go golfing at his favorite course. They’d spent time together over the week, but only at school. He truly enjoyed learning all about Frankie and his interesting life, passions, and thoughts.

Zach was sitting in the breakfast nook of his house, loudly eating Froot Loops straight from the box. “Yeah, he’s like the most Broadway person I’ve ever met. He and his sister moved here from New York City; he’s told me all about it.”

“Wow, sounds like a… unique person.” Zach’s father replied, still a little confused. “Not exactly the type of person I’ve ever seen you hang out with, though. Is he really going golfing with us today?

Zach, oblivious to his dad’s discomfort, smiled and nodded. “It’ll be fun, you’ll see.”

“What do the other guys think about him?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “He is literally the funniest person I’ve ever met, and so honest and kind.”

Zach’s father felt uneasy about the idea from the second he said ‘pink hair’. “Alright, just promise me you won’t dye your hair anything funky, okay?”

He laughed, still not noticing that his father was not as excited about this as he was. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

There was a loud knock on the door, and Zach’s dog jumped up and started barking. “Chill out, Tiger,” he grumbled as he went to answer.

Frankie was waiting on the other side, a wide smile on. He wore pink cut-off shorts and a simple neon green tank top. “Hey!” he yelled, walking past Zach, excited to see his home. “I totally knew that your parents would be the type to hang up framed photos of their children everywhere!” he said gleefully, walking straight to the hallway where his mothers’ infamous ‘Wall of Shame’ resided.

“No,” Zach argued, “I look ridiculous in some of those! Pretty good in the other ones, though…”

He smiled, finding the one of Zach as a little kid, wearing a tiger costume for Halloween. “Awe, look how cute you were! What the hell happened?”

“Shut up, I’m cute as fuck,” he snapped back, having fun watching Frankie peruse the wall.

Zach’s father finally walked over, figuring it was time to meet the new character. “Well, that’s an interesting outfit. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a boy above the age of three wear pink shorts.”

Frankie looked over from the wall to find the man who he assumed was Zach’s father, which was already a worry in his mind. He didn’t really know how to reply, still unsure of what he meant by his rather offhand statement. “Thank… you?”

“It’s definitely a style statement,” Zach interrupted. “I’m sure all of the old people at the course will get a kick out of you.”

The two giggled together about it, and Zach decided it was time for the grand tour. He briefly showed him around the house, making note of all the important places. Things like: where Zach first broke his arm, the doorway where his parents kept record of his height, and the case where they kept the trophies from his golfing competitions. Finally, they reached his bedroom in the back of the house.

“Most of the furniture is from IKEA, have you been there before?”

Frankie was too busy looking around the room to respond. He had no problem opening up all of the dresser drawers and opening the closet, getting quite personal.

“It’s actually a really fun store; we should go there together some time,” he said, plopping on his bed, settling to just watch Frankie instead of talk.

Once he finished his sightseeing, he sat beside Zach on the bed. “It’s nice, very Zach-ish. This bedspread has got to go, though.”

“What’s wrong with the bedspread?”

“What _isn’t_ wrong with it? Let me guess; you got it on clearance from Wal-Mart when you were, like, twelve.”

Zach narrowed his eyes at him, trying not to laugh at how accurate his friend was. “What else do you think about my room?”  
           

“I like the curtains, they’re not bad. The nightstand seriously needs to be dusted. It’s very straight-boy; the only thing it’s missing is a poster of a girl in a bikini from Sports Illustrated.”

He laughed, nodding along with the comments. “Thanks for the critique. Hey, ready to go to the course, then?”           

Frankie jumped up, “I was born ready!”

* * *

 

The car ride there was a little uncomfortable. Zach’s dad was still trying to understand Frankie, and more importantly why his son was so invested with him. He asked a lot of questions about him and his family, which were bordering on weird and judgmental. Zach didn’t really catch those things, though.

“Yeah, I’ve got my parents and then my sister. We all moved here just last week.”

Zach’s dad kept his eyes on the road while he asked his questions, looking up into the rearview mirror every now and then. “What do your parents do for a living? Does your father… live with you all?”

“My mom works as a lawyer; she had connections here in Florida, so that’s why we chose here. And, uh, yeah my dad lives with us. He’s currently working at an accounting firm.”

He laughed as he pulled into the golf course parking lot. “I just can’t imagine a father allowing his son to dye his hair pink, you know?”

On that note, he left to go confirm his membership and get their clubs ready. Zach felt a little awkward about the last comment, finally beginning to realize that maybe his dad didn’t like Frankie as much as he did.

Frankie, however, didn’t seem too taken aback. He was generally used to being judged for his hair and fashion choices, but it wasn’t really in his personality to care that much.

Zach wanted to say something to apologize, but he didn’t know how to bring it up. If he did, he was scared he’d say something completely out of line out of nervousness.

“It’s okay,” Frankie ended up saying quietly to Zach.

Zach’s dad knocked on the window of the car, signaling that it was time to get going. “Let’s go,” Zach yelled, “it’s time for me to dominate you on the course!”

Frankie scoffed and mumbled to himself, “Well, if that’s what you’re into.”

It was a beautiful day in Florida, and Zach was still extremely excited to show his favorite passion and skill to his new best friend. As they walked to the first hole, he began explaining the basics of the game, like the rules and the best way to hit the ball.

Frankie grabbed a random club and did a few practice hits.

“No, no,” Zach said as he watched. “You’ve got it in the wrong hands; you can’t just swing both ways.”

He smiled and shrugged, “Some people do.”

Zach, oblivious to the joke, grabbed his arms and tried to fix his grip on the club. “You’ve got to hold it like this.” He mumbled against him.

Frankie laughed, “Wow, look at us; we’re like a cliché romcom. The big strong man has to tightly hug the leading lady while teaching her how it’s done. If only you were Hugh Grant.”

He scoffed, playfully pushing off from him. “Dude, I’m trying to help you. You should at least know the basics, or else it won’t feel nearly as good beating you.”

Zach’s dad, who had left to grab some balls and get the golf cart, came to collect the boys. Luckily for Zach he didn’t see the little moment they had. “Alright,” he began, “does your friend know how to play now?”

He shrugged, “I’m sure Frankie’ll catch on. He’s actually so smart, like you should see him in biology; he knows everything.”

"Oh, I wouldn’t say _everything_ ,” Frankie said sarcastically, basking in his adoration. “You’re smart, too, Zach. You just have to start paying more attention in class. Oh, and you should probably stop picking fights with all your teachers.”

“Good idea,” Zach’s father interrupted. “His big mouth tends to get him in trouble far too often.”

They reached the first hole, and it was suggested that Zach tee off, to help show Frankie exactly what to do.

He went slowly, explaining all of the things he was doing and what his objective was. After a few practice swings, he hit the ball and sent it across the field, surprisingly close to the hole.

“Wow, Zach,” Frankie said, genuinely impressed. “That was really good.”

He shrugged with a big grin on his face. “Yeah, I’m sorta a legend around here.”

This time it was his father who scoffed, grabbing the club from him playfully. “Yeah, yeah, the only thing you have more than golf skills is modesty.”

“Well, you know what they say about men with big egos,” Frankie joked, though no one really caught on.

“Take a swing,” he said, handing him the club.

He really wanted to impress Zach and show his dad that he was capable of doing stereotypical male things. So, closely following all of the tips that were given to him, he took a great big swing at the ball. Unfortunately, this moment wasn’t like in the movies. Instead of mastering the sport on his first try, amazing everyone watching, the ball landed a considerable length away from the hole. And in the bad grass that Zach warned him about.

“Don’t worry,” Zach rushed to say the second he noticed Frankie’s disappointment. “It’s your first time playing golf, I mean, of course you’re not going to be amazing at it. You just gotta keep practicing, you know?”

Frankie nodded, knowing that it was unreasonable to expect anything different than a mediocre hit his first time.

“Hey, I know, you should join the golf club at school!” Zach announced excitedly. “We’ve been trying to get into a tournament since freshman year, but we apparently need at least one more player to officially be recognized as a school team. You can be our final player.”

“But I’m no good,” Frankie argued, pointing at the lost ball.

“We’ve got a lot of time for improvement, though.”

Now that the idea was in his head, Zach refused to let it go. “Please, please, pleaseee Frankie, just join the team.”

“No,” he repeated, “I’ve got enough on my plate. I’m still getting used to this place, I have to focus on school, and I’m already joining the drama department.”

Zach shrugged, “But you’re already settled here; you’ve got me to help you there. And you’re, like, the smartest guy I know, so school shouldn’t be an issue. Besides, they’re probably going to have to cancel the winter play because not enough people actually audition.”

The last sentence sparked an idea of his own in Frankie’s mind. He grinned mischievously, already knowing exactly how to work Zach to get what he wanted. “Alright, I’ll tell you what: I’ll make a deal with you.”

Zach listened intently.

“I’ll join the golf team as long as you and your friends audition for the play. Therefore we both get what we want.”

He nodded, considering the idea, but he didn’t seem exactly sold.

Frankie knew exactly how to reel him in. “Plus, we’ll get to spend way more time together.”

Zach smiled, “Deal.”


	3. Chapter 3

_My friends suck_ , Zach thought.

They were sitting in Caleb’s living room, where they planned to study but really just played video games. This was where they could usually be found on Saturday nights. Zach had spent all morning wondering how on earth he was going to coerce his friends into auditioning for a play.

It was a shooting game, and Zach was playing against Caleb, Cody, and Hayden. They were in the most intense part when he decided to speak up.

“So… there’s something I need you guys to do for me.”

Cody laughed, “Sorry, we’re too busy kicking your ass right now!”

“I’ll do whatever you want but you have to pay me," Hayden joked.

“Dadgum rocket came out of nowhere!” Caleb shouted, oblivious as usual.

Zach groaned. “Seriously, I need you guys to try out for the school play with me.”

This got scoffs and laughs. “Are you kidding me, man? No one tries out for the school play, and what makes you so interested in the arts? Last year you thought The Titanic was based off a novel by Shakspeare.” Cody questioned as he smashed the buttons on the remote.

“Okay, I’m sorry that I didn’t know Shakspeare was a playwright.”

Hayden snorted, “You don’t even know how to spell playwright.”

“Yes I do!” Zach shouted, his tone reminiscent of a five year old boy who just got his legos taken away.

“Spell it for me then,” Hayden said, his tone of a mother struggling to deal with her bratty five year old boy.

“P-L-A-Y-R-I… you know what never mind, this isn’t important.”

Hayden rolled his eyes, even though everyone was busy watching the screen as the game neared its end. “We all know why you’re asking us to do this, and it’s not because you’re a sudden thespian.”

Zach crinkled his eyebrows, trying to play it cool. “Why then?”

“Because of the pretty, rich boy from biology!” Cody yelled.

“Hey, he has a name!”

Hayden scoffed, “Yeah, we know, seeing as you’re always talking about him now.”

He realized that it was not a favor that would come easily. But, when he Zach was in times of trouble, his favorite last resort was making a bet. “Alright guys, if I win this final round, you guys have to seriously audition for the school play.”

“What do we get if you don’t win?”

Zach was halfway decent at video games and therefore confident that he’d be able to swing a win. And, well, he didn’t do anything that was exactly ‘rational’ or ‘well-planned’.

“I’ll shave my head.”

They laughed, figuring that it they had 75% chance of beating Zach and getting a nice reward out of it too. “Deal!”

Zach was feeling the pressure now. He knew he had to win this game or else he’d not only have to endure a bad punishment, but he’d also have to disappoint Frankie, which was probably the worst punishment he could think of.

It was down to the last three shots. Whoever was left standing afterwards was the winner. Zach made his character hide in an alleyway, next to some dead body, and watch for one of the others to show themselves. First to walk out in the open was a confused Hayden who had thought Zach was on the east side of town. _Easy kill_ , Zach thought, his morale instantly boosted.

“Damnit!” Hayden yelled, throwing his remote down. “Don’t let him win, guys. I am so not cut out for the stage-life.”

It seemed after that no one was stupid enough to walk into the empty virtual plaza. Zach took his character and ran to the other side of town, staying vigilant for one of the others. From the screen he could see that they were both in houses, but he didn’t know where in the game world they were located. He remembered Cody saying something about a crack den that he liked to hide in on the west side of town.

“Cody, get your ass outta there!” Hayden yelled, eyes now glued to the action going on in the other three boxes.

He found it, but consequently Cody had seen the screen and knew he was coming for him. Now there was a chase going on between the two. Zach was behind him and took his gun out, desperate to get the perfect shot. Luckily for him, it worked. Cody was down, now he just had to take out Caleb.

“What the hell,” Cody groaned, tossing the remote control beside Hayden’s and laying back in the sofa.

Caleb was, stupidly enough, chasing after him. Zach ducked behind a Porsche and took his final shot. His character was dead, along with the others, and their asses were all trying out for the show.

 

\----------------  
  


Zach had gone out to grab some Taco Bell, considering that he was going to make them ‘ruin their lives’ by joining the play. In his absence, the three boys sat lazily watching the television in a bitter mood. That’s So Raven reruns were their favorite.

“What makes Grande so special anyway?” Hayden questioned. “Like, he seems like the last kind of person Zach would be into. The second I saw him I thought they were going to be getting in fights, but I was totally wrong.”

“Yeah,” Cody murmured tiredly. “He seems to really be embracing Broadway Boy.”

“I’d personally rather embrace his sister,” Caleb offered.

“It’s weird, though, right?” Hayden continued. “They’re completely different people but they mesh really well together. I mean, he’s never really shown interest in anyone like this before.”

No one wanted to be the first to say the obvious; Zach had a crush on Frankie. They’d known him since kindergarten and in that whole time up until their senior year of high school, he had never cared about anyone the way he cared about the new boy.

“I just can’t believe we have to audition for the shitty play. Do you think it counts if we do the stage work, like putting up the sets and stuff?”

Zach’s phone started ringing (and they knew it was his because last week they changed the ringtone to Anaconda without telling him) from across the room. Caleb got up to look for it, finding it jammed between the couch cushions.

“It’s Frankie,” he said, “should I answer it?”  
“Yes,” the others said practically in unison.

“Hello,” Caleb answered.

There was a momentary silence from the other line, and then Frankie’s voice came on. “Hey… Zach?”

“Uh, no, this is beast mode. What’s up?”

“Oh, hey, Caleb.” Frankie replied, sounding confused. “Where is Zach?”

Hayden jumped up from the sofa and grabbed the phone from him. “Frankie, it’s me, Hayden. I was just wondering: how much does the play really mean to you? Zach is trying to force us to try out for it all of a sudden.”

Frankie laughed, filled with a surge of joy. “Really? He’s actually going to do that for me?”

“It’s just… we’re not really theater people, you know? One time in the third grade I threw up while I was doing a presentation on the Wright Brothers. I don’t do well in front of crowds.”

Cody and Caleb laughed in the background, thinking about Hayden’s infamous vomit presentation. People called Barf Bag Boy for the rest of the year.

“I assure you it’s very important to me. And don’t worry, I’ll totally help you guys out and show you the ropes. It’s not too hard once you actually get up there. You’ll be able to work on your stage fright, too.”

Hayden sighed, realizing that Frankie wasn’t the type to take no for an answer. “Okay, well, one more question. Why does Zach like you so much?”

There was a little laugh and then a few moments of silence from Frankie. “Honestly, I don’t know what I have in him, but it’s lovely… for now?”

Before Hayden could reply, Zach opened the front door, hands full of Taco Bell bags. “Hey,” he yelled, “what are you guys doing with my phone?”

“Talking to your lord and savior Frankie Grande.” Cody joked, rifling through one of the bags, looking for his gordita.

Zach yanked the phone out of Hayden’s hands. “Frankie?”

“Hey Zach!” Frankie greeted excitedly. “I heard the good news: you got your friends to audition for the play.”

Zach laughed a little. “Yeah, it’s actually a funny story, I’ll tell you later. Don’t forget about your side of the deal, though.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry.” Frankie said, waving it off. “I went out to a sporting goods place and got my own set of teal clubs. I’m ready to join the team and everything.”

He was grinning like an idiot, imagining Frankie and his teal clubs, glad that he was showing enthusiasm for the sport already. “Alright, we have to go training as soon as possible.”

“I looked on the school’s website and found out that the auditions are on Thursday after school, so we have to practice for those soon, too.”

“Well, looks like we have a booked schedule. Listen, I gotta go before my friends eat all of the Taco Bell.”

“Of course,” Frankie laughed, “sort out your priorities here. Oh, and don’t forget about the biology test on Wednesday.”

Zach smiled to himself. “I guess we’ll have to find time for that too.”

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello!!! i'm glad you guys are enjoying the story. i didn't reply to any comments but i did in my heart. my sister says she is tweeting good things on twitter, thank you. i hope this story is good. sorry for lack of updates. bye!!

Zach angrily lied in bed impatiently watching the clock all while pretending that he wasn’t impatiently watching the clock. It was about twenty minutes until he needed to leave to go meet up at Frankie’s house and he could barely wait.

After school was when he first brought up the whole play situation with his dad. Unbeknownst to Zach, he isn’t exactly a huge believer in the arts, or really anyone who participates in them. It’s not like he never did anything creative, but, truth be told, Zach hadn’t done anything artsy since fifth grade.

“Why on earth would you try out for the school play?” his dad had asked in a disgruntled voice. They were sitting at the table, his dad reading the news as Zach ate his after-school snack.

“No, no,” Zach reassured. “Frankie told me that you don’t ‘try-out’ for a play, but you ‘audition’. Either way, I’ll totally win.”

His dad sighed heavily. “Son, I don’t think you can win at ‘auditions’ for a play. It doesn’t work that way.”

“Whatever. I need to go to Frankie’s house tonight so we can practice.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Zach. I just don’t know about this pink-haired boy. Now he’s managed to manipulate you into joining some play that you don’t even want to do. Are you sure that’s the type of person you want to be friends with?”

Zach rolled his eyes at his dad, finally beginning to pick up on his behaviour. “Do you have something against Frankie or what? You always find a way to be rude to him or criticize what he does. No one manipulated anyone, we made a fair and equal deal. Just like that one time you accidentally spilled chili on that shirt Mom gave you and I didn’t say anything and in return you took me to the mini putt-putt place. Even-Steven and shit like that.”

“Zach,” his dad said pointedly. “Why are you being so defensive over this boy that you’ve only known for a week? What makes him so important all of a sudden? Are you just going to change yourself and your interests so he’ll like you?”

“First of all, he has a name, and it wouldn’t kill you to say it every now and then. Second of all, isn’t it good to try new things out? If I don’t adventure the world, how will I know who I am?”

“Well first it’ll be exploring the world of theater and the next minute you’ll be exploring your sexuality or some crap like that,” his dad muttered.

He scoffed in disbelief. “Low, Dad. I was thinking more like that one time when I first tried vegan cake and realized it wasn’t for me.”

“Son,” he replied, sounding more and more tired with the whole situation. “You shrieked like a little girl, threw the piece of cake down and yelled, ‘who the hell made this dirt chunk and called it cake?’.”

“It was really gross.”

“It was a huge offense to the nice lady who handmade it and was standing right next to you, actually.”

Zach rolled his eyes for what felt like the fiftieth time. “Dad, when did we even get on the topic of vegan cake? I need to go get ready to go to Frankie’s house. I don’t have time to argue.”

“Who said you were even allowed to go see him? I’m still not on board with the idea of you being in the school play, you know.”

“Give me one good reason why.”

“Well… you need to focus on your studies. You’re barely passing biology, and I know that if you applied yourself a little more and spent more time studying at home, you’d do better. You don’t have the time to dress up in little outfits and perform on stage.”

Zach smiled deviously. “Don’t worry about bio, Dad. Frankie just so happens to love that class and he got the highest mark on Friday’s test, which is pretty impressive if you ask me, considering he wasn’t even here for the whole unit. He’ll tutor me along the way.”

“Fine, but…. you know, Zach, when I was in high school everyone made fun of the theater losers. What if you get bullied?”

“Right now, you’re the only one bullying me!” Zach yelled angrily. He threw away the food package from his snack and left, slamming the kitchen door symbolically. “Oh, and by the way,” he said, opening the door a smidge. “I’m the only bully at my high school, so I think I’ll be just fine. Thanks for your loving support, though.”

Looking back at their confrontation, Zach groaned, jumping out of bed and grabbing his backpack. He figured Frankie wouldn’t be mad at him for showing up a few minutes early. In all the rage of the previous fight with his dad, he just wanted to be with his new best friend and out of his house.

After looking it up briefly on Google Maps, he had ‘sorta somewhat’ an idea of where Frankie’s house was located. If anything he knew that it was nearby, maybe only ten minutes away by foot. Besides, in the warm fall weather of Florida, it would be a comfortable walk.

It wasn’t long before he found the right address and the home that must’ve been Frankie’s. It was large, as expected, in a whole different subdivision. It was considered the rich side; the houses were bigger, the lawns were nicer, and they even had a community pool (one that Zach was already making plans to use with Frankie).

He hesitantly knocked on the door. Usually Zach was great with these kinds of things; he had so much confidence and personality that meeting people and being in new territory wasn’t something he worried about. But it was all different with Frankie. Zach got that unexplainable bundle of nerves whenever he thought about being with him, one that exploded every time he was with him. The feeling never seemed to go away, either.

The door opened, and Frankie stood with a bright smile on his face. “Zach, you made it!” He moved aside, letting him enter his home. “I’m so glad you’re finally seeing my house. We haven’t entirely finished unpacking yet, so please excuse any cardboard boxes lying around. But here it is: the Grande Casa.”

“Big house?”

Frankie chuckled at Zach, not exactly sure if he was making a joke or not. “Now it’s time for me to give you the grand tour of the place. Starting here we have the main entrance, complete with the standard end table and random vase on it.”

“You pronounce vase funny,” Zach said, feeling so stupid the second afterwards. For some reason he just got so nervous around him, making him say even dumber things than usual.

Nevertheless, he just laughed again. As always, he found Zach’s stupidity charming and endearing. “Moving right along, we have the kitchen, fully equipped with stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and Ariana’s backpack that she never takes care of.”

Zach giggled, getting a crack out of his ‘sales pitch’ style tour.

“Then there’s the living room, with these expensive leather sofas that look beautiful but are disgusting to sit on in the heat and humidity in Florida.” Now he was beaming and sashaying his arms like those girls on The Price is Right.

“Here’s the infamous hallway, walls lined with embarrassing yet lovely family photos and old trophies that Mom likes to cling on to.”

Zach got a kick out of that. What Frankie called ‘embarrassing’ were model status when compared to his own family’s photos. There were tons of framed pictures of the family in large embraces in front of tourist places like the Chicago bean and the CN Tower in Toronto. Then there were rows of standard school photos, one row for Frankie’s (k-11), and one for Ariana (k-9).

“Come on, come on,” Frankie groaned. “I’ll save all these stories for another time. Right now we’ve got to go and finish the tour, get some refreshments, and start rehearsing.”

Zach took his last glances at the wall while being led away by his ever-eager host. “Next we have a spiral staircase that, be warned, is slippery.”

“Great,” Zach scoffed, “this thing seems like an absolute bitch to fall down.”

“Up here is the den, in which my mother is currently doing research for a case she’s working on, so shh. Then there’s Ari’s room, one sec.”

He excitedly knocked on the door. “Hey, come say ‘hi’ to Zach.”

Ariana opened the door hesitantly peeking out. Zach didn’t commonly see her at school, considering he was a senior and she was a sophomore, so he still wasn’t very familiar with her.

“Woah,” he said, noticing that she had taken off her regular school clothes and was wearing her pajamas for the evening. “I didn’t know you ever wore your hair down and not in the high ponytail.”

She giggled a little, reminding Zach just a smidge of Frankie. “Nice to see you, too.” Ariana said, waving goodbye and closing the door.

“I guess she’s just busy.” Frankie shrugged, even though, unbeknownst to Zach, he had explicitly asked his little sister not to be too time-consuming with his friend. He wanted to utilize his time and spend it uninterrupted.

“And finally, the part we’ve all been waiting for,” Frankie announced loudly, walking down the hall a little more. “The grand finale: the bedroom of Frankie J. Grande!”  
Zach laughed, entering the room excitedly. It was bigger than his own room, and a lot cleaner. Everything didn’t look like it was from IKEA, either. It was all probably nice and expensive furniture brought here from his little apartment in New York.

He looked at everything excitedly before finally plopping down heavily across Frankie’s bed. “Even your sheets are nice!” he yelled, rubbing his hand across them. “What’s the thread count on these?”

“I don’t know,” he laughed, sitting beside him, prompting Zach to sit up. There was something of an awkward silence as they both looked around and quietly thought. “So, how are you doing?” Frankie asked.

“Not so great.” Zach sighed. “My dad doesn’t think I should do the play.”

“Oh,” he replied, instantly disheartened. That was the last thing he wanted to hear. The good thing about that was that it was nothing Frankie did wrong. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know…” he answered, standing up and beginning to pace across the hardwood floors. “He just doesn’t think it’s a good idea, is all. He says I need to ‘focus more on my studies’ and he’s all worried that I might get bullied or something. Which, for the record, is ridiculous and he needs to step out of the stone age. Kids don’t bully each other because of acting, mostly we just make passive aggressive comments about people’s eyebrows on Instagram.”

Frankie laughed at the last part, wondering how Zach managed to make jokes when he was complaining about his father.

“I mean, the worst part is: my dad and my brother are, like, my best friends. I guess I didn’t have many friends as a kid. Well, I had a lot in middle school, but that’s mostly because you’re sorta expected to be a major asshole then. But when I got to high school, people got tired of me being so immature all of the time and, well, I didn’t have any friends for a couple years. But they were always there for me, and Peyton does everything that Dad does. So if Dad doesn’t like you, then Peyton won’t like you, and that’ll absolutely suck.”

“Zach, Zach,” Frankie said suddenly, grabbing his shoulders and making him stop walking. “You can’t just pace back and forth while contemplating your family troubles in an endless stream of thought.”

“You’re right,” Zach said, sitting down again. “I’ll do that at home. So, how do we rehearse for a play?”

Frankie laughed a little, always getting a kick out of his friends antics. “Well, uh… I have to be honest, I don’t exactly know how to teach you how to act. I mean, I’ve taken classes for years, but I only know how to learn how to act, not how to tell someone else how to act.”

“So there’s nothing you can help me on?”

“Well, I didn’t say that,” Frankie replied, pulling a binder out of his backpack. “I did manage to find the audition section for the play we’re doing. I figured we could just read lines from that and I’ll tell you what you’re doing right and wrong.”

“Sounds good. So… what play are we doing?”

**“An absolute classic,” Frankie sighed, rolling his eyes a little. “High School Musical.”**


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, sorry i was gone for so long. i have finally finished exams, so i hope to writing more now. i hope you enjoy this chapter, it's really important to me. if you're going to listen to anything while you're reading it, please listen to "she changes the weather" by swim deep. thanks. that's all.

“I still don’t understand how I’m supposed to be an ‘overly-excited high schooler’ when I’m the exact opposite.”

Frankie rolled his eyes for what must have been the millionth time that day. “Zach, honey, _that’s what acting is_.”

“Well… I don’t get this. This isn’t the type of acting I’m used to…. Usually I just pretend to be sick to get out of exams or I act like I’m blind so I can bring my dog into the Publix.”

“Hate to break it to you, but acting on stage isn’t the same as acting to get what you want and cheat in life. Plus, I think that last one is probably illegal in some way… or at least just really messed up.”

He shrugged. “I hate shopping alone, though, and Tiger can sniff out the best meat.”

“Zach! Focus on High School Musical! If what you said about the amount of kids who audition for the plays, then you’re probably guaranteed a role already. But I can’t bear being a part of an awful show… I really can’t.”

So far, Zach was really hating this whole ‘acting’ thing. He just wanted it to end already, and usually if he’s in a situation that he doesn’t like, he _will_ get himself out of it. But, like everything nowadays… it was different with Frankie. He had more patience and worked harder, like with the acting rehearsals or with biology class. Things were just better when he was around. Zach was happier.

“I know, I know,” he muttered. “Can’t we take a break, though?”

Another eye roll from Frankie, then a small shrug. “Yeah, we have been working for a while. Wanna go get something to drink?”

They took a trip to the downstairs of Frankie’s house, to the monstrous kitchen. Zach laughed as pushed himself up to sit on one of the granite countertops. “My dad would do some real damage in this place, man. He would never stop cooking.”

Frankie giggled as handed him a glass of water. “Do you like to cook too?”

“Totally…. well, sort of. Nothing fancy, like what you’re probably used to. I’m a simple man; lots of sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies.”

He choked on the water he was drinking while laughing at the image of Zach baking cookies. “Oh really?” he said between laughs.

“Excuse you!” Zach yelled jokingly but full of defensiveness. “I’ll make you something sometime to show you just how good I really am.”

“Alright, alright. If you’re gonna talk the talk then you gotta walk the walk. We’ve got plenty of ingredients here; make me a nice dinner.”

Zach smiled widely, “I accept that challenge.”

After raiding his fridge and cabinets, he had assembled a nice collection of food products on the breakfast nook table. Frankie watched, a little worried, wondering what on earth he had gotten himself into.

“Why do you look so worried?” Zach asked indignantly as he pulled out two slices of bread.

“Well, you know, it’s not too late to just back out of this… we could go to Chipotle instead,” Frankie mumbled, remembering how much Zach talked about the stupid restaurant. “I’m just a little scared of what you’re gonna concoct.”

“Nice idea, trying to get me where I’m weak,” he muttered as he slathered mustard on the slices of bread, taking time with his ‘art’.

Frankie sat across the table, smiling as he watched. “So...do you really hate acting as much as it seems?”

‘ _Oh no_ ,’ Zach thought. ‘ _Does Frankie feel bad… like he’s making me have a bad time_?’

“I think acting is a lot of fun, especially when I do it with you, Frankie. We should do it more often, actually. We could go to different restaurants and act like it’s our birthday and get free desserts, or pretend it’s our anniversary or something.”

Frankie laughed at a mix of what Zach had just said and the image of his hazardous avocado-cutting techniques. “Sounds like a date.”

Zach looked up at the use of the word ‘date’. “You know, I’m not gay…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Frankie reassured tiredly. “It’s just an expression.”

“I do feel like you’re my boyfriend, though.”

‘ _Oh no_ ,’ Zach thought again. ‘ _That was hella weird. That’s something that you’re supposed to only think in your head and definitely never say out loud… like that one time I told the neighbors that their kid looked like one of the psychologically disturbed kids from a horror movie_.’

Luckily, as he did with most of the questionable things Zach said, Frankie merely laughed it off. Unbeknownst to Zach, however; he felt his heart flutter a little after the ‘boyfriend’ line. But he knew better to fall in love with some boy he was so painfully straight. It was all lovely, for now… he just had to make sure not to get too attached.

“It’s just, like… you’re the funniest, smartest guy I know. You’re different than everyone I’ve ever met. There’s just something there.”

He bashfully hid his smile with his hand, his face turning pink. “Enough talking; hurry up and finish my meal.”

“It’s about done, actually. A beautiful, goddamn stunning avocado chicken sandwich, crafted with love.”

“Wow, Zach. You seem very attached to this thing. Do you feel like it’s your boyfriend, too?” Frankie joked, still thinking about it.

He narrowed his eyes and shoved the plate towards him. “Time to revel in my good cooking skills.”

 

Come Thursday, it was the big day for the auditions. In that time, they’d been able to go over the important songs and scenes both one-on-one and with the rest of Zach’s friends who grudgingly agreed. They were actually worse than Zach was at acting, and the rehearsals were a pain in the ass for Frankie. Caleb sang off key in the most horrible of ways, Hayden mumbled and stared at his feet whenever he spoke, and Cody smiled too much, and his voice went up a whole octave.

Frankie knew that the group of them was something of a mess, but it was the best he could put together on such short notice. Once auditions passed he figured he’d just have to work even harder with them to clean up the edges.

Zach wasn’t nervous about the audition until he walked into school and saw Frankie. On second thought; maybe he was just nervous because of Frankie. He seemed excited, as usual, without a hint of anxiety over the play. Zach loved how confident and assured he was.

His friends, on the other hand, were actually pretty scared. “Are you sure we have to do this, man. I told you I’m bad at this stuff… like, I won’t even be any help at all,” Hayden pressed as he chugged a bottle of water panickedly.

“Dude, chill. It’s just gonna be a little performance in front of the drama teacher.. It’s not like they’re gonna drag you afterwards and laugh at you.”

Cody nodded as Zach spoke. “They’re probably just gonna be relieved that someone actually showed up. Lord knows no one ever does.”

Caleb was really amped up for it all. “I read online that girls really like boys in theater. Do you think there’ll be any at the auditions?”

“Well, I know Ariana will be there, but I don’t think you’re exactly in her league, bud,” Zach joked.

“Frankie,” Caleb said, directing the question to him. “Do you pick up a lot of chicks because of acting?”

He thought about the best way to answer that question. He just seemed so excited about the idea that Frankie really didn’t have the heart to say no. “You have no idea. Girls go crazy over it. But no. You’re not dating my sister.”

Caleb shrugged, “Guess you can’t win them all, huh? Well, what’re we waiting for, then? The auditions are right after school, so we should probably head there now.”

The group made their way to the auditorium and were instructed to go backstage to prepare. They had to read some lines from some dramatic scene of the musical and to sing ‘Breaking Free’, the last song.

They were standing together, looking over the lines as a few other kids that they didn’t really know performed their auditions.

“Frankie, can I talk to you alone for a minute?” Zach asked, his palms all sweaty.

He found a secluded area behind a clump of stage curtains, sensing his nervousness. “Zach, are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah…” he mumbled. “It’s just… acting isn’t really my thing. Doing anything in school besides what’s mandatory isn’t really my thing. Except golf, of course, which is barely connected to the school at all. This whole theater thing is really new to me. All this time I’ve thought of myself as confident and totally not afraid of something like performing… but I’m actually scared.”

Frankie didn’t know exactly what to say, so he settled on grabbing Zach’s hands reassuringly.

“I don’t know why I’m telling you any of this, either. I never tell anyone that I’m scared about anything. And I don’t want you to feel guilty or think that you’re making me unhappy, because that’s totally not it... “

“Then what is it?”

Where they stood was dark, and he could only see the outline of Frankie’s face. “It’s just… I really want to do well. For you. I want to impress you and make you happy. I’ve never really felt that way about anyone.”

They heard Caleb call for them, that Zach’s turn was coming up. In a moment  of complete urgency and utter recklessness, Frankie did exactly what he promised himself he wouldn’t do. Fast and somewhat sloppily, he grabbed Zach’s face and kissed him passionately.

He pulled away, feeling numb yet fluttery all at once.

“Woah.” Zach mumbled almost inaudibly.

**“Break a leg.”**


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, guys!!! sorry if this chapter is as messy as zach is when he's drunk. it was a tough one to write. but i hope you enjoy, and have a good evening.

“Zach! Look out!” was the last thing Zach heard before the sharp feeling of something small and heavy nail him in the back of the head.

It was after school on a sunny afternoon, which was usually reserved for all-holy golfing time, Zach’s most cherished thing. He would bring his dad and little brother and maybe a few friends and just go all out. Golf was one thing he was truly passionate about, something he was proud to yell and jump around about.

Today was different, though.“Are you okay?” his dad asked panickedly, rushing to help him off the ground.

Zach got up on his knees, brushing the back of his head in pain. “Yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

“He yelled to warn you; why didn’t you duck?”

“Sorry… I just didn’t react fast enough, is all.” he replied, standing back on his feet slowly and carefully.

He was trying his best to brush it off as just a little accident, but his dad wasn’t really buying it. “Son, you’ve been acting strange all day, ever since you got home yesterday. And then you demanded that you skip school today out of nowhere.What’s up?”

It was true. Zach had been acting differently since yesterday. He was spacey and disoriented and out of touch with everyone else, just slow. On the inside he was the opposite; jittery and excitable and absolutely chaotic. He decided in the morning as he accidentally poured orange juice in his bowl of Fruit Loops that he should just stay home.

His parents, understandably, were coming up with new theories to try and explain Zach’s weird mood lately. They thought maybe he was on drugs, or maybe he got himself in trouble with the law, or he got in trouble at school. His personal favorite of theirs was that he met a girl and fell in love.

The true cause of his troubles was in fact a boy. A very certain boy who was smart and funny and generous and one of the best people Zach has ever met. A boy with unrelenting passion and overwhelming confidence and unapologetic personality. A boy that fills his stomach with butterflies and his mind with questions. No one ever made him feel that way before.

That boy, Frankie Grande, who kissed him yesterday.

After their backstage ‘talk’, Zach was pushed onto the stage, expected to perform his lines and the song. However, it was hard for him to do that when he was trembling and his face was burning from the places where Frankie had touched.

He, thank God, got through the most embarrassing audition of his life with relative tact. The only real competition there were the Frankie and Ariana, anyway. He knew he’d make it into the play no matter what his audition was like.

Everyone else did their lines and Zach was quick to rush home. He barely looked at anyone or said anything. His friends didn’t notice too much, as they were still pretty razzled themselves after their first ‘stage performance’ type of thing.

The feeling reminded him of a Wednesday afternoon in biology class. He was sitting next to Frankie with his head on the desk, watching both the rain pour outside and Frankie’s face in front of the windows. He, unlike Zach, was actually listening to the lecture. But this was Zach’s favorite time to look at his friend; he could practically see the passion in his eyes. Plus, his skin looked really nice under the fluorescent lights that mixed with the natural lighting.

As he sat there, he was completely consumed by Frankie. He just adored everything about him, admired everything he said and did. Usually he hated people and made fun of them and just generally pissed them off, but Zach would never want to annoy Frankie. He just wanted to stare at him, enjoy the view for as long as possible.

Frankie had finally noticed Zach’s gaze and turned his way. A wide smile broke out on his face as he looked back to the boy.

That’s what it felt like. That unexplainable bliss, that overwhelming joy of being full and empty all at once.

“I’m fine.” Zach muttered to his dad tiredly. “I think I just wanna go home, actually.”

His dad didn’t argue on that. It seemed to him Zach wasn’t at all in the mood and looked like he just needed to rest, especially after that hit. “Okay…” he mumbled. “Let’s go, I’ll drive you home.”

When Zach got home, he went straight to the kitchen and poured a large glass of ice cold water. He stood leaning against the cabinets, slowly drinking.

“Zach Rance,” he muttered to himself. “Get your shit together.”

Throughout all his life, he had had two kisses. The first kiss was with Kelly Strung at the middle school graduation dance to the song ‘Everytime We Touch’. It was, to say the least, not his finest moment, and he didn’t even enjoy it. All the guys thought it was cool, though, which only encouraged Zach to brag about nonstop the entire summer.

He just didn’t know if the guys would find his most recent kiss as cool.

Just as he finished his water, there was a series of knocks, and he heard talking from outside. Reluctantly, Zach opened the door to find Caleb, Cody, and Hayden. They were as amped up as they usually were on Friday nights, talking about some party they were planning to attend.

“Zacharoo!” Hayden yelled, making Zach cringe from the use of his middle school nickname. “Where were you, man? You should’ve told us you were gonna skip; we would’ve ditched with you.”

“Yeah, dude. Not cool. I had to go to math all alone, and that creepy guy who sits next to us kept talking to me about memes from Reddit.” Cody piped in.

Caleb pitched his bit, too. “You missed it: Ariana talked to me today. It was crazy. She’s the one.”

Hayden scoffed. “Are you kidding me? She asked you if you had a spare pen, and you were about ready to ask her father for her hand in marriage.”

Zach did his best to laugh along with them, letting them inside. “Sorry, guys; I just didn’t feel well today. Don’t worry, I didn’t really do anything cool.”

“You ran out the other day before we could talk about the auditions,” Cody commented. “Remember? The ones you made us go to.”

“Oh yeah,” he mumbled, trying to think of a good excuse. “Sorry… I just felt sick afterwards, you know? I just came home and slept for a while. Uh, how was it?”

Caleb laughed, “I was so good, which is probably why Ariana has been all over my like mold on a shower curtain ever since.”

“It was one question!” Hayden reiterated. “And please don’t compare her to mold.”

“Hey, uh…” Zach said, ignoring his bickering friends. “Did you happen to see Frankie at school yesterday?”

“Yeah,” Cody answered. “He was there, asked a lot about where you were. He seemed kinda weird, though. Why do you ask? Did you not talk to him yet?”

Zach just shook his head. “Uh, no, not really. Were you guys talking about a party?”

Caleb laughed, forgetting all about the previous topic rather fast. “Hell yeah. There’s supposed to be a big party over at Josh’s place.”

“There’ll be booze, right?”

“Obviously,” Hayden scoffed.

“Let’s go.”

**  
  
**

Zach’s plan was to down as many shitty drinks as possible to therefore get his mind off from Frankie. However, the more he drank, the more he thought about it, and the more he lost his inhibition, the more he talked about it.

Hayden, the designated driver, wasn’t drinking at all that night and was able to hear all of Zach’s thoughts.

“It’s just, like… he’s amazing, you know? He’s so smart… and funny… and ambitious… and beautiful…”

At this point Hayden would rather eat a shoe than listen to him gab about Frankie any more.

“I think he’s my soulmate…” Zach claimed, taking another long slurp.

Hayden grabbed the cup out of his hands and set it down on the table. “Listen, Zach, maybe you should get some water or some sleep. You drank a lot tonight.”

“And then he kissed me and I just don’t know anymore, man… It’s crazy… I can’t describe it…”

“Woah, what?” he asked panickedly. “You and Frankie kissed? When?”

“Yeah, before the audition,” Zach mumbled, having trouble with his articulation, slurring all his words together.

“Wow,”

Zach asked, sounding more like a kid than anything, “Is that okay?”

Hayden laughed a bit to himself. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t expecting it to happen at some point. They were so close to each other that it seemed inevitable. “Of course it’s okay, man. Don’t stress out about it. You’re probably just making Frankie freak out about it by being so freaked out.”

Zach was so drunk by now that it was sorta like talking to a dog; he was hearing everything Hayden said, but he was barely registering it. With little tact, he took his phone out of his pocket and fumbled around trying to find Frankie’s contact to send a message. He eloquently typed out, ‘hey!! sorry 4 being mia, pls dont stress about anythign. i hope oyour audtion went well. text me back’.

And, thirty minutes away, lying on his bed watching a movie with Ariana, Frankie received the ridiculous message. He didn’t really know how he should feel about it, considering how much anxiety he’d had since the kiss, leading up to the text.

He just sorta laughed, opening his computer so he could do some research on effective golf skills.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, guys!!! happy v-day. i hope you're having a good one. this chapter is full of fluff to honor this day. thank you for reading. i hope all of your endeavours work out and i hope you get some nice chocolates.

The next week went by with a sense of relative normality. For better or worse, neither Zach nor Frankie (or Hayden, for that matter), brought up the kiss. Life was as usual as ever, all while they both did their bests to remain neutral and forget that it ever happened. Though, as he sat in biology, eyes lazily fixed on his best friend, it seemed nearly impossible to just forget.

Zach wished he had some way to bring it up, some way to talk about it. ‘ _What would I even say?’_ Zach thought as he sat on the patio outside his house on the next Sunday afternoon.

Hayden, who had dropped by for a visit, watched his disgruntled friend, knowing exactly what was on his mind. “Dude, have you guys really not talked about this yet?”

“What if I say the wrong thing?” he replied quietly.

All of this was really shocking Hayden. In all the time he had known him, Zach was an eccentrically loud, self-centered, unapologetic asshole. It was sorta his thing. He knew that Zach had no problem with expressing his feelings, like that one time he got a papercut and he called the paper a ‘piece-of-shit, douchey looseleaf’. But all of a sudden, Zach Rance was speechless.

“I think saying the wrong thing is better than saying nothing at all,” Hayden answered after a little thought. “Ignoring things like that only make them weirder.”

Zach just shrugged with a look of disdain. “I don’t even know how I feel about it, though. And you’d think after thinking about it constantly for a fucking week I would.”

“Well… start with the basics. Did you enjoy it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did you not enjoy it?”

“No.”

“Would you do it again?”

“Of course.”

Hayden laughed a bit. “You’re clueless. Get Frankie over here and talk it about, or else you’re just gonna sit here unhappy for a long time.”

“They’re putting out the cast list tomorrow at school. At least you have that to look forward to together, right?” Zach just nodded his head slowly, still looking agonized from thought. “Why don’t you guys go golfing together? You’ve spent so much time preparing for the play and then awkwardly tip-toeing around one another that you haven’t taught him how to golf properly yet.”

“Wow, Hayden,”  Zach replied, smiling as if he had just had an epiphany. “For once you actually have a good idea.”

           

 

Frankie, to say the least, was surprised by the invitation to go golfing. It seemed to him that Zach didn’t necessarily want to spend time with him, which put him in an insufferable mood. All week he was cranky, and Ariana was too quick to guess exactly what was going on.

She was the one who convinced him that he _had_ to go hang out with Zach today, that maybe he would finally explain how he felt. That final push was enough to break his self-control, and before he knew it, he was already putting on his shoes.

“Sorry,” Frankie said as he watched his recently hit ball roll into the bad part of the course. He couldn’t even remember what the prickly grass was called again. “Looks like I’m still bad at this.”

“No, no,” Zach rushed. “You just don’t have enough experience to be good yet.”

He shrugged, messing around with the handle of his golf club. “I used to play mini putt-putt a lot. Does that count?”

“Well, golf is actually a lot like mini putt-putt. Except everything is ten times bigger and there’s no fun themes to the courses.”

Frankie laughed, thinking that maybe they should go do that sometime. It was pretty funny to imagine Zach trying to use use one of those little kid plastic clubs.

"So,” Frankie said slowly while they walked towards his recently ostracized ball. "Are we really not going to talk about it?"

Zach sighed to himself. "Not yet. Let me ease into it."

He released a nervous laugh. "Was, like, two weeks not enough?”

"Well excuse me," he replied. “It’s not fair, you know. You can’t just kiss me like that out of nowhere and expect me to form coherent thoughts on it?”

Frankie started to get upset. “Fine,” he stated plainly, the aggression dripping from his voice. “If you didn’t like it then you should have just told me right afterwards.”

Zach opened his mouth, ready to say something, when Frankie spoke again, “On second thought, actually, no. If you didn’t like it then you should have just pushed me away instead of kissing _me_ the way _you_ did.”

He grabbed the golf ball and stomped off towards the bathrooms.

Once again, Zach Rance was rendered speechless by Frankie.

 

“Frankie,” he yelled angrily. “Are you in here? Where’d you go?”

He had his little fit, then stormed off, and the only reasonable place on the golf course that Zach could think of as a hideaway was the bathrooms.

It was a small rectangular room, with a few stalls, sinks, and a row of mirrors. In the reflection of the mirrors, just in front of one of the sinks, Zach spotted the boy he was looking so desperately for. He was staring at the ground, looking desolate. It was the saddest that he had ever seen him appear.

‘ _Why do I feel this way when I see him? Why do I feel so warm?’_ Zach thought.

“Man, I was looking everywhere for you,” he muttered, starting to get angry at him.

Frankie finally looked up, staring back at him through the mirror, then turning around to face him directly. “Just tell me right now, Zach. Do you want something romantic out of this relationship or not? I swear I wouldn’t be mad at you if you said no, I just need you to be honest.”

“But,”

“Zach, answer the question. I can’t keep wasting my time thinking about you like that. If you at least told me straight up that you’re only interested in being friends, then maybe it would be easier to get over this already.”

He stood there, not knowing what was right to do anymore. “Frankie, you know what I want. You always have.”

“Yeah,” he said with a pained laugh. “I thought I knew what you wanted, and I thought that that was me. But then I kissed you and you ignored me and didn’t talk about it. All that time I was really scared. I don’t wanna ruin our friendship, Zach, because I think it’s the best one I’ve ever had.”

“Then why’d you kiss me?”

“Because… at that point I thought you were into me, and it felt like the right thing to do. It was admittedly a spontaneous decision, and I still don’t know if it was the right one. Mostly, I just really wanted to.”

A painfully uncomfortable silence washed over the little room, only broken by the sound of Zach’s footsteps as he walked towards the boy. “You know, it’s funny. My parents kept wondering why I was acting so strange since the day you kissed me. They joked that I’d fallen in love.”

Frankie looked up from the ground and into Zach’s eyes, his heart beating at full pace.

He got closer and closer to him, closing the space between them unapologetically. “I didn’t know I felt about it then, but I’m starting to think maybe they could be right.”

Zach was close enough to Frankie’s face that he could properly admire the blueness in his eyes. However, he decided he’d do that another time. He pushed his lips against Frankie’s, admiring those instead.

His mind whirled around like a kalidoscope, that familiar feeling of pure, unadulterated happiness seeping through him. His heart practically skipped a beat as Frankie raised his hands to Zach’s face, grabbing on gently.

Then Frankie pulled away just slightly, forehead still touching Zach’s. “You haven’t even known me long enough to love me.”

He giggled a little, drunk with affection. “I think we’re just soulmates, Frankie. Besides, I said _maybe.”_

He smiled, lips moving closer again. “We’ll see about that.”

 

After an old man smoking a cigar interrupted them as he walked into the bathrooms to, quote, ‘take a piss’, they decided that maybe they should move to a more romantic venue.

That’s how they found themselves in Frankie’s house, more specifially his room. They were lying together, his head resting on Zach’s chest.

Everything was so sudden. He was confused, but nevertheless filled with inexhaustable joy. Just yesterday he felt helpless and lost, but now today he was able to freely kiss and cuddle his best friend.

As he ran his fingers through Frankie’s (incredibly soft) hair, Frankie decided to ask Zach some questions. “So, what exactly are you thinking about this?”

“Nothing but great things,” he replied plainly. He really didn’t want to think too much about all of this. He just wanted to enjoy it for as long as humanly possible.

Frankie grinned widely at that, biting his lip like a lovestruck school girl. “Did you tell anyone about the kiss?”

“Only Hayden knows, and he was really cool about it. He was the one who gave me the idea of asking you to go golfing.”

“That’s good, then,” Frankie thought out loud. “What do you think the others would say?”

Zach laghed a little, imagining that. “Cody would probably just tell you all the embarassing shit I’ve done in the past, and Caleb would probably try to get you to arrange a double date with you, me, him, and Ariana.”

Laughing loudly, he nuzzled his head closer into Zach, feeling another burst of spontaneous happiness. This time, in a whisper, he asked. “Did you really mean what you said about soulmates. Like, do you actually believe in that kind of stuff.”

“Of course I do,” he scoffed back. “I think some people are just made to certain other people. A million coincidinces brought us together, think about that.”

“Wow,” Frankie said, a little shocked. “I didn’t know you were so into, uh, philospohy. Guess we’ll have to talk about that more.”

He smiled, “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

They lied together in silence with the faint sound of Ariana’s pop music playing from her bedroom. The sun was setting by now, creating a beautiful mix of colors for them to look at. “Frankie, look,” Zach said, pointing at the sky through the window. “That pink is about the same color as your hair.”

They laughed together, content with just enjoying each others prescence.

“You do realize that we still haven’t worked on my golf skills, right?”

“Damn,” Zach whispered. “We’ll have to focus on that later, though. I just wanna stay like this for a little longer...’

“That’s a perfect plan.”

 


End file.
